THE SUPERIORITY OF MAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 15

THE SUPERIORITY OF MAN.

“ Yes," soliloquised Banks, as he flung off his waistcoat aLd looked at the place where the button was missing. “ There’s a lot of talk about man being no good without a woman, but it strikes me there isn’t much that a man can’t do for himself just as well as any woman, and without making so much noise about it." He placed the button close at hand, took the needle and cotton, and commenced business. x

“ My wife would have said she had no tyhe to do this just now," “ but I can do the thing in a brace of shakes." He dodged away at the eye, but the cotton would go round the corner; he gnawed off the end, and tried again. At the sixth try he succeeded. “That’s it," he exclaimed. “Now, I must get the old threads out. I’m coming to the conclusion that men are better at ic than women.”

He took up the waistcoat and tugged at the threads with his teeth ; he got some out, but he he had to have recourse to his knife. When he had accomplished the task, there was a big hole in the cloth where the button should be, and a gash in his finger.

“ Never mind, the button will hide it."

He stuck the point ef the needle in the cloth, and pushed it with his thumb. He got it half way through, then, with a capital letter, he dropped the waistcoat, and danced about while he pulled the needle from his thumb and sucked the injured member. “ It doesn’t seem so easy, after all," he muttered, “ but I’m not done with the thing yet." Again he stuck the point in the cloth, and pushed the needle gingerly. When he saw it peeping through on the other side, he smiled knowingly, bent down gripped the needle with his teeth. He prepared himself for a mighty tug; but the teeth slipped off the smooth metal, and his head went back against the window frame, and a new bump as big as a walnut appeared on his cranium. Then he got savage and went for that needle. The first time he missed it and stuck it into his lip, but the next effort was a success. He gripped it firmly and tugged at it with great determination, He pulled at the garment with his hands and at the needle with his teeth ; he got red in the face and out of breath and temper, but still he would not give in. After three minutes’ hard work, the instrument came .through and Banks smiled with triumph. “ Thought I could soon manage it!” he cried. He pulled the thread through and then

Then he found that he had forgotten to make a knot in the end and the thread had come right through, and his labour was lost.

Then his wife earner upon the scene and without a word—while Banka was airing his opinions on things in general in sfoVDg Iftnguage—slw smd that button

on in less than no time, and didn’t damage herself a little, either !